Ian Holloway says lessons have been learned after Swindon’s defeat at MK Dons

Ian Holloway praised MK Dons for their tactical work as they beat his Swindon side 3-1 in Sky Bet League Two.

Swindon struck inside the opening 20 seconds when Harry Smith headed in Ollie Clarke’s cross.

MK Dons equalised in first-half stoppage-time as Kane Thompson-Sommers scored his first Dons goal when he converted the rebound after Scott Hogan had been denied.

MJ Williams fired home a 57th-minute equaliser after Laurence Maguire’s initial header hit the post, before Alex Gilbey headed in Aaron Nemane’s cross seven minutes later.

Holloway said the Dons’ shape posed his side problems that proved decisive in a close contest.

He said: “Their structure, compared to our structure, they looked better at it and we weren’t good enough at winning it back.

“Were they two goals better than us on the day? I don’t think two – I think maybe one. But unfortunately, that’s the way it is. We’ve got a lot to learn, lot to do and have got to keep going. It’s quite simple.

“They played around us and it was unsettling. Then they went behind us and got in. So we’ve got to look at that.

“We spoke about what we felt we wanted to do but we didn’t assert our game on them.

“We scored too quickly and got too excited. I’d rather score early, but don’t lose it – what are we doing? You stay calm and composed.

“We’ve got to learn and what I’ll do is learn very quickly from it. I haven’t played against that shape before and I really like it but now I know some things I didn’t know before. Onwards and upwards.”

Scott Lindsey was pleased with MK Dons’ reaction to both last week’s defeat in the FA Cup and to going behind early on as his team saw off the side he managed in 2022-23.

He said, “I kind of wasn’t worried because when you concede in the first minute, obviously I’m not happy about it but I didn’t want to rant and rave about it and show a negative energy on the sideline because I think it can spill out on to the pitch.

“We played so, so well in that first half. It’s the best we’ve played since I’ve been here.

“We rightly deserved the goal before half-time and then second half we scored some good goals but I didn’t think we played as well. I thought we could have dominated the ball a little bit more.

“But it’s definitely a good feeling for sure. As soon as we debriefed on Tuesday from the FA Cup game, there was a line drawn really quickly and we focused that we’d just won the last three league games.

“It’s not a bad place to be at the moment so we’re all right and winning today has kick-started that again.”